Roddick stumbles at last after pushing Federer to the limit

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THERE are three match points and there are three match points with Roger Federer staring them down. In the time — two minutes, at most — Andy Roddick had to weigh up the awful prospect, he lost his ninth tie-break in nine attempts to Federer and with it went his only realistic opportunity of upending the Masters Cup applecart.

How close Roddick may come again to downing the great man will have eaten away at him through the hour-long journey from Qi Zhong to the city centre and probably robbed him of any semblance of a decent night’s sleep. He